Apple dropped 1.67% after a research firm says iPhone 7 sales were down 25%

Apple lost 1.67% of its value on Friday after a surprising drop in the early afternoon which plunged the stock down over 2% at one point.

The stock dropped sharply at about 1:30 PM ET before making a slight comeback.

Apparently, a German research firm, GfK, issued a report based on "channel checks" suggesting that iPhone 7 sales would be down from last year based on data from Europe and Asia.

People who have seen a copy of the report are saying that it claims that iPhone 7 unit sales are down 25% on an annual basis against last year's iPhone 6S model, although it does not measure sales in the United States.

An article in Asian electronics trade Digitimes earlier on Friday also suggests that Apple has told its chip partners that its iPhone 7 chip orders will fall about 20% sequentially in the first quarter of 2017.